Whipped Cream
by Saturday
Summary: I scowled at the jar of pickles I had just unpacked. 'Don't call me that.' [slash, one shot]


**Author's Note:** I had been working on the third chapter of "The Island", and just after I turned off the computer (like literally less than thirty seconds after it was completely shut down) this idea hit me. And of course, being the compulsive write I am, I had to come back in here and turn BACK on the computer and wait (rather twitchily, at that) as it _slowly_ sort of woke up and — well, here I am. Sheesh, this'd better be worth all the trouble I went through, lol.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything but Alicia and Pine Grove High School.

-----

"A high school reunion. Oh joy. Because that's _exactly_ how I want to be spending my weekend."

"Your high school reunion is this weekend?" asked my sister interestedly, taking the letter from me and reading it over.

"Yes."

"Are you going?"

"No."

Alicia rolled her eyes at me and put the letter back down on the counter. "Here, help me unload the groceries. Why aren't you going? It could be fun! Don't you miss your friends? Who did you use to hang out with — well you weren't exactly popular, were you, Snitchy?"

I scowled at the jar of pickles I had just unpacked. "Don't call me that."

"What? Snitch? That was your nickname in high school, wasn't it? Aw c'mon, Dan, it was cute!"

I didn't answer, carefully placing the jar of pickles on the top shelf of the fridge.

Alicia sighed and crossed the room. "I'm putting this letter on the bulletin board over here to remind myself to force you to go," she said. "Oh by the way, I have a dentist's appointment around nine tomorrow, do you think you could take the laundry to the Laundromat? I have all the dark colors in the bag on the right — see it, Dan? — and the light colors in the other bag with the flowers on it. Make sure you don't put the dark and light colors together like you did last time, my white sweater was completely ruined..."

I kind of zoned out as she continued on about the importance of keeping the dark and light colors separate. Alicia tends to have that kind of effect on people.

I reached back into the paper bag and pulled out a package of liverwurst. I really did not want to go to this stupid high school reunion. I mean, I was a twenty-five-year-old Broadway background dancer just scraping by in a small apartment in Brooklyn with my twin sister and her cat named Chester. How lame was that?

Yes, you heard me; I was living with a cat named Chester. And we only had about ten channels on our TV.

I think I had good reason not to want to see all my high school friends again.

"Dan, are you listening to me?" Alicia asked suddenly, kneeling in front of the bottom shelf and trying to cram all the cereal boxes onto it at once.

_Selective hearing_, I wanted to say, but I decided I valued my life a little more that that. "Yes."

"Do you think you could do that for me?"

What the hell was she on about? "Sure," I said casually and began to juggle a few of the apples I had just unpacked.

"Oh dear, I need to call Mr. Jones and tell him I'm going to be late for work tomorrow..." she said absently, coming back to the kitchen table and reaching into another bag. "And stop doing that," she snapped, grabbing one of the apples out of the air. "One of these days you're going to knock yourself out with an apple when I'm not home, and _then_ what will you do??"

Sometimes I think I'd rather be living with my mother.

-----

"It'll be nice to see all your friends again, won't it?" said Alicia happily Saturday afternoon.

"No."

"Don't you miss any of them the teeniest little bit? What about that boy Michael, he was so sweet, don't you miss him?"

"No."

She sighed and drove out of the garage. "You're so incredibly antisocial, Dan, sometimes I worry about you. I certainly hope you develop some social skills in the ten minutes before we get there. I do _not_ want you to be remembered as the guy whose sister made him come to the reunion."

"But I _am_ the guy whose sister made him come to the reunion," I said slowly.

"Of course you are," she said absentmindedly as she turned the corner. "But people aren't to know that. I want you to _have fun_ here, all right? Is that too much to ask?" She didn't wait for an answer before plowing on. "Are you sure we're dressed appropriately? I've never been to one of these before, what does one _wear_?"

I looked down at my blue jeans and MIT sweatshirt. "Dunno."

The car ride to Pine Grove High School seemed to take hours as Alicia chatted concernedly about whether or not her earrings were too ostentatious for the occasion and if I thought she should change to diamond studs. I honestly couldn't care less. I really just wanted to go to work, to dance with the rest of the cast. We were currently working on a new production of West Side Story, and I have never had so much fun in my life.

I'm such a loser. A walking gay man stereotype.

Because I am, by the way, homosexual. Yet another reason why I didn't want to come to this stupid reunion.

"We're here!" said Alicia excitedly, pulling into the parking lot of an old brick high school. "Ooh I haven't been here in _ages_! I wonder if they still have that painting in the lobby of Mr McCray. You don't think he's still the principle, do you? No, that would be simply too much — ten years, right? It _is _your ten year reunion..."

I allowed myself to be dragged into the building by Alicia's iron grip on my arm, feeling like I was headed to the gallows. I did NOT want to do this AT ALL, but I knew better than to put up a fight against Alicia in public. She's stronger than she looks.

The old school was as dark and gloomy as ever, and, unfortunately, the old painting of Mr McCray _was_ still on the wall in the lobby, looking rather grimy. There were about a hundred or so guys about my age standing around and talking, and Mr McCray himself was there serving some sort of iced coffee that nobody seemed to want to touch. I was extremely creeped out and wanted to get out of the building as quickly as possible, but Alicia dragged me to the front desk to sign me in.

They actually had a sign-in sheet. How extremely Pine Grove.

"Ooh this is _cute_!" Alicia exclaimed, clapping her hands together in spontaneous delight and looking around the lobby. I think she had forgotten that I had not gone to a co-ed school. The idea of a bunch of mostly unmarried guys her age together in one place was apparently very exciting for her. "Come on, let's go talk to some people!"

I looked around the lobby too, trying to see if I remembered anybody. Who _had_ I hung out with in high school?

I didn't have time to ponder this, however, because Alicia grabbed my arm again and pulled me into the crowd. "Recognize anyone?" she asked me.

"No," I said flatly.

And then I saw him.

Spot Conlon was leaning casually against the wall, talking to two boys who I recognized to be Jack Kelly and Blink Parker, looking as sexy as I ever remembered him. He was wearing baggy jeans and a blue dress shirt, but the way he wore it unbuttoned at the top with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows made it look as casual as what I was wearing.

I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES! WHERE YA FROM YOU SEXY THANG? YOU SEXY THANG, YOU!

Alicia followed my gaze. "Ooh, who's _that_?" she asked excitedly, looking at Spot. "He's _cuuuute_! Do you know him? Let's go and talk, I have never seen biceps that defined..."

"No, let's not," I said quickly, panicked, grabbing her arm.

"Why not?" she asked.

_Because I don't want you to ruin the only chance I might have with this guy. _"...Because," I answered lamely.

"Oh come _on_, Dan, are you worried he won't remember you?" She smiled in what she obviously thought was a sympathetic, supportive fashion. "It's all right, this is what high school reunions are all about! Even if you weren't exactly the loudest kid in school, that doesn't mean people will have forgotten you completely. C'mon, let's go and say hi and then you can introduce me!"

I again had the acute sensation that I was being led to the gallows as Alicia hauled me over towards where the three guys were standing. Just then, however, someone stepped forward and stopped us.

"Snitch Caspary?" said the guy.

"Um ... hi," I said slowly, looking him over. He wasn't bad looking — tall and lean, with tousled dark hair, expressive eyes, and rimless glasses — and he was smiling and looking pleasantly surprised.

I had no idea who he was.

"Skittery Goorjian — don't you remember me?" said the guy, holding out his hand. "'Cause I sure as hell remember you. We were friends in our junior and senior years, remember?"

I didn't. "I ... think so," I said slowly and shook his hand. Alicia cleared her throat significantly. "Oh! Sorry, and this is my twin sister, Alicia Caspary."

"We've met," said Alicia, grinning toothily at him. Even _she_ remembered him! What the _hell_??

"How could I forget?" said Skittery charmingly, and I half expected him to kiss her hand or something. He didn't, and I had to work very hard not to let out an enormous sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was for my sister to fall in love with a guy who claimed to be my best friend in the last two years of high school but who for the life of me I couldn't recognize.

"So how have you been?" Skittery asked me casually, slipping his hands into his pockets. "I'm a management-consultant for McKinsey & Company, it's a blast. Of course, I _have_ always been a bit of a techno-weenie..." I chuckled despite myself and he grinned at me. "So what have you been up to?"

"I'm..." I hesitated. Suddenly my job didn't seem good enough to tell this guy, a management-consultant for McKinsey & Company.

"He's a background dancer on Broadway," Alicia cut in impatiently, running a hand through her hair. "And he's brilliant. Listen, Dan, I'm going to go and say hello to those guys over there. I'll be right back, all right?"

"You're on Broadway?" asked Skittery enviously, and for a minute something like lust flickered across his face. Then I blinked and it was gone. Classic.

"Um ... yeah," I said. "We're working on West Side Story right now, it's awesome."

"That's really neat," said Skittery honestly, and my job didn't seem insignificant anymore. I glowed. "So ... you're living with your sister?"

The glowing stopped abruptly. "Yes. And she's a total lunatic."

"I don't think so," he reasoned, but he laughed anyway. "I've been living by myself in New Jersey, commuting to New York every morning and night to go to work. It's been so long since I actually _went out_ and _talked_ to people..."

"Really? You don't sound like you've lost any social skills," I said, then stopped.

Whoa. Had I just been ... like, _flirting_?

I glanced over his shoulder at Spot, Jack, and Blink, who were deep in conversation with Alicia. Or rather, Alicia was talking a mile a minute and they were looking extremely bored.

And suddenly, I was very glad that I was here with Skittery laughing and talking instead of over there gaping at Spot and listening to Alicia babble.

Skittery was looking me over, a grin playing over his lips. "I still can't believe you don't remember me," he said after a minute.

"Why do you say that?"

"No reason..."

But I could tell there _was_ a reason, and my curiosity was really killing me. I grinned at him. "Well are you going to tell me or just leave me hanging?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "Don't you remember that night at the graduation party? Senior year? We were at Mush Meyers' house, c'mon, you have to remember that..."

"I..." I thought for a minute, a vague picture of a huge white house coming to view. "Yeah, I think so."

"And you were with going out with Marin Gulliver?"

Ohh the dark ages before I accepted the idea that I was gay. I suppressed a shudder. "...Yeah."

"And we all partied till three in the morning, and Itey bought like three tons of whipped cream." He chuckled. "And everyone virtually covered the place with it and Mush's dad got wicked pissed, and I think David Jacobs fell asleep and we completely buried him in it."

I definitely remembered _that_.

Skittery ran a hand through his hair and tilted his head to the side. "And then when we were all leaving, you ditched Marin and you and me made out in the corner until the end of the party."

My jaw dropped. Literally. I seriously thought it was going to come unhinged.

"I ... we ... what?" I stuttered, turning rather red.

He grinned and shrugged again. "It was weird — I went off to Dartmouth, you went to MIT, and we never tried to contact each other again," he said slowly. "I still have a thing for whipped cream, though..."

"Yeah..." I looked over at Spot, who was now telling Alicia about his life working at McDonalds or something. He didn't seem quite so attractive anymore, to be honest. I'd much rather be talking to my little techno-weenie friend.

I looked back at Skittery, who was cracking his knuckles anxiously, waiting for my reaction. The fact that I had forgotten had obviously deeply affected him.

So I leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. "I remember you now," I said. "C'mon, let's ditch this place and go buy some whipped cream."

-----

**Author's Note:** Dunno what I think of this one. I liked writing Alicia. I _think_ it was worth turning the computer back on... :-D Anyway, please leave a review, I'll love you forever!!

-Saturday


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